Weed Gallery
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Annual Bluegrass
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: Generally appears in bunches. Leaves are folded in the bud and have a boat-shaped leaf tip. They have a wrinkled section near the middle of the blade and the seedhead is triangular in shape.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Annual Ryegrass
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: Annual ryegrass grows in clumps. The plant base is purple and the leaves are dark and shiny with smooth edges. The bud is rolled in the center of the plant. You’ll notice spikelets at the top near the seedheads.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Black Medic
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The plant is hairy, especially the stems. Leaves are alternate to one another and are divided into three egg-to-heart shaped leaflets with somewhat toothed edges. The stalk of the middle leaflet is longer. They are yellow and generally cluster to form a rounded head.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Broadleaf Plantain
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: When plantains infest turf, they grow in dense clumps. The smooth, oval leaf blades are 2 to 6 inches in length. The young plants form a small rosette. The flowering stalk ends with a spike head containing seeds that can be 2 to 6 inches in length.
Life Cycle: Perennial, grows year-round.
Carolina Geranium
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Identified by its elongated stems growing vertically and branching near the base. The stems are greenish-pink in color and hairy. Their leaves are also hairy on top and bottom and divided into five segments. Flowers are pale pink or white.
Life Cycle: Winter annual, but can also be a summer annual.
Carpetweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Leaf surfaces are dull green and smooth with pale undersides and are pinkish brown in color toward the base. The stems are smooth. They are usually small and grow horizontal in circular mats.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Catchweed Bedstraw
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The seed leaves are oblong to egg-shaped with slightly notched tips, lacking hairs, and range from 1/2 to 1 inch. Mature catchweed has stems up to 6 feet long and form dense and tangled mats over vegetation. Flowers are small and greenish-white on short branches.
Life Cycle: Winter annual, but it can be a summer annual as well in warmer climates.
Chickweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Leaves are smooth and oval with a point at the tip. It has tiny white flowers that are about 1/4″ in diameter. The stems trail along the ground and growing ends may be upright and grow up to 8″ tall.
Life cycle: Winter annual, germinates primarily in the fall but also year-round.
Clover
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Stems creep along the ground and can grow to between 4 and 12 inches long. Leaves alternate with one another and consist of three leaflets. Each leaflet is up to 1/2 an inch long, nearly hairless, and may have a whitish crescent in the center. Tiny white to pale pink flowers cluster into egg-shaped flower heads.
Life cycle: Annual or perennial, depending on the species.
Crabgrass
Type: Grassy week
Appearance: The leaf blades are a quarter inch wide and about the thickness of a pencil. When it first appears, the leaf blades angle out from the stem. As the stems get larger, they tend to fall out into a star pattern.
Life Cycle: Summer annual
Cutleaf Evening Primrose
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The leaves are simple, either elliptic or lance-shaped. The leaf blade is narrow with deep irregular notches on the sides. The leaves are alternately arranged on the stems, which are reddish in color.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Dallisgrass
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: Coarse in texture, it grows in a clump and increases in diameter as you approach the stem. The leaf blades are fairly wid, 1/4″ to 1/2″. The rhizomes have short internodes that look like concentric rings on its surface.
Life cycle: Perennial
Dandelion
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Lance shaped leaves. Composite flower is yellow and 1 to 2″. Flower gives way to white seed-head.
Life cycle: Perennial, flower in spring and fall.
Dollarweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Leaves are round in shape and dark green and glossy with scalloped edges. The flower is small with five white petals and forms in clusters on the end of long stems.
Life cycle: Summer perennial
Foxtail
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: Foxtail grows in clumps similar to crabgrass, only smaller. Its leaves are flat. Foxtail has sharply pointed tips and a round base. The main identifier is the bushy head that resemble a fox’s tail. This can be green or purple, depending on the species.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Goosegrass
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: It appears as a pale green mat-like clump with flattened stems that grow in a low rosette. Flower stalks are short, stout, and compressed. They bloom from July to October. Seed heads are somewhat similar to those of dallisgrass, but short and stiff.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Hairy Bittercress
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Just like the name suggests, hairy bittercress leaves are hairy on both the top and bottom. It starts as a rosette and then grows more upright, up to about 10 inches. They form dense mats as several plants grow around each other. The flowers are small and white and have four petals.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Henbit
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Spreads about 12″; dark green, scallop-edge leaves.
Life cycle: Winter annual, blooms during warm periods in winter, but mostly spring.
Horseweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Horseweed starts out as a small rosette, and resembles a mare’s tail when they mature. At maturity, it can be an erect stem up to 10 feet tall! An abundance of dark green leaves alternate from the stem. The flowers initially look like small daisy-like flowers but they mature into seed heads that resemble dandelion puffs.
Life Cycle: Winter annual, but can also be a summer annual.
Lambs-quarter
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The weed varies in height from 1 to 6 feet tall. Stems are erect and sturdy and often tinged with red or striped with pink, purple, or yellow. Leaves vary in shape from triangular to ovate to lanceolate. They are thick with white glands that are especially dense on the lower surface.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Lambs-quarter
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The weed varies in height from 1 to 6 feet tall. Stems are erect and sturdy and often tinged with red or striped with pink, purple, or yellow. Leaves vary in shape from triangular to ovate to lanceolate. They are thick with white glands that are especially dense on the lower surface.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Large Hop Clover
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Can be identified by its hairy branched stems that can be green or a little reddish in color. Leaves are hairless and alternate along the stem. The blooms are bright yellow flowers that grow in loose clusters on long stalks.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Nutsedge
Type: Grassy weed
Appearance: Leaves are grass-like and yellow-green, while the spiky head is purple or yellow. It has a faster growth rate than most grasses and has a more upright growth habit. This makes for a nonuniform turf.
Life cycle: Perennial
Oxalis
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Oxalis grows on weak stems that branch at the base. The leaves form in groups of three leaflets on long petioles. Often mistaken for clover, the leaves differ from clover in that they are distinctly heart shaped. The flower is yellow with five petals and occurs in clusters.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Persian Speedwell
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Stems can be up to 2 feet long. The whole plant is covered with tiny hairs. Leaves are opposite one another on the stem and are roundish or oval and 4 to 16 cm long. Flowering takes place February to May, and the flowers are blue with darker blue lines and white centers.
Life Cycle: Winter annual, but it can be a summer weed in cooler states.
Purple Cudweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The cudweed family of weeds grow in basal rosettes. Both the leaves and seedheads are covered in fine, white “woolly” fibers and are oval-shaped. In winter, they will remain as a rosette, but will grow a stem with purple flowers in spring.
Life Cycle: Winter or summer annual.
Purslane
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Stems are reddish-green and thick, creep along the ground, and rarely grow more than 4″ tall. The leaves are paddle-shaped and can be up to 2″ long. This is considered an edible weed, but be sure not to confuse it with Spurge, which is NOT edible.
Life cycle: Annual
Ragweed
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: It can grow up to 5 feet tall and has hairy stems and light green leaves, up to 4″ long. Ragweed flowers are yellowish-green and small. They grow in clusters up to 6″ long near the top of the plant. It blooms in late summer to early fall.
Life cycle: Annual
Shepherd’s Purse
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: The weed first forms a rosette, then a stem emerges that can grow up to 20 inches tall. Leaves are lightly covered in hairs and vary in shape but are deeply lobed. The flower stems are single or branched. Flowering takes place in late winter or early spring. The four white flower petals are sometimes tinged pale pink.
Life Cycle: Winter annual
Spurge
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: There are many kinds of spurge, but most are low-growing, creeping weeds that form a dense mat if left to mature. Leaves are oval and can be reddish brown. The stems exude a milky white sap if broken.
Life cycle: Summer annual
Wild Onion
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: 8″ to 12″ tall with solid flar leaves that appear directly from the bulb
Life cycle: Winter annual; the leaves will die off once the heat of summer comes, but the bulbs will not. They stay dormant until the next spring.
Wild Violet
Type: Broadleaf
Appearance: Best known for their violet flowers, but they can bloom in other colors such as light blue and white. The leaves are heart-shaped but may also taper to a fine point.
Life cycle: Perennial